Abstract
The growing uses of functional polymers in different domains and the well-established remanence of synthetic polymers underline the necessity to study their microbial biodegradation. A phylloplane bacterial collection was screened for its potential to overcome documented factors limiting polymer biodegradation, i.e. low cleavable long chain linear polymers and low bioavailable hydrophobic compounds. Acrylate-based polymers, namely poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA), poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM), poly(acrylamide) (pAM) and poly(acrylic acid sodium salt) (pAS), and a hydrophobic crosslinker Epoxidized Soybean Oil Acrylate (ESOA) were used as selective substrates. OD monitoring of growth with these molecules as sole carbon sources were correlated with substrates alterations determined by 1H NMR, GPC and FTIR. Selected strains belong to Bacillales Family XII. Incertae Sedis, Bacillaceae, Nocardiaceae, Micrococcaceae, Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonadaceae. Bacillus species mainly developed with ESOA. Exiguobacterium sibiricum strains could grow with pHEMA and pNIPAM leading to polymer molecular weight decreases. Arthrobacter koreensis showed the highest alteration capacities of pHEMA with molecular weight decreases from 22,000 to 3,148 g/mol and the production of presumed aromatics and carbon chains.
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